M. Butterfly: The Plight of the Monarchs

Photographer Guillermo de Zamacona captures the beautiful and endangered monarch butterfly—on film.Whatever became of the very hungry caterpillar? If he was lucky, he became one of the zillions of fluttering lovelies to adorn the models in photographer Guillermo de Zamacona’s exhibition “Project Monarch,” which fittingly debuted on Earth Day last week.

Produced by former Vanity Fair staffer Richard Villani and displayed at Milk Gallery in Manhattan, the butterfly project aims to draw attention to an environmentally devastated part of the Mexican mountains where 300 million monarchs live and breed. So de Zamacona trekked to Mexico to photograph the butterflies with another ethereal creature: the model. When de Zamacona and his team shot some world-famous mannequins in nature, Balenciaga and butterflies fluttered in harmony among the oyamel fir trees. But during de Zamacona and Villani’s trip, they discovered that not only were the monarchs in trouble—the people living on the mountain side were too. “The people who live at the foot of the mountain have no electricity or running water,” says de Zamacona, who will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of his photographs to the villagers, specifically to outfit their homes with solar panels.

De Zamacona continued, “Hopefully, people will come to look at the work. We are keeping all the lights in the gallery off, except for a contained spot on each image, so the space is dark. Sound we recorded in Mexico of the butterflies fluttering about is played in the background to give the viewer an understanding of what it's like to be in this magical and unique place.”